India Relations With Myanmar
India shares one of the longest borders with Myanmar spanning more than 1500 Km, that is more than many countries in Europe. Myanmar is an integral part of India’s ‘Act East’ Policy. The relations between India and Myanmar was reinvigorated after a democratic government under the Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi (from NLD party) won the elections in 2015.
That landslide victory ushered euphoria in the minds of people of Burma and many bilateral meetings at various level of Foreign Secretaries. The leaders of both nations met in ASEAN summit in 2014 and there after many times. But the relation turned a little sore when the Rohingya Crisis spilled in the national debate in 2016–17, and the India’s decision to deport back to Bangladesh territory. To understand Rohingya issue, Balaji Viswanathan explained it very well in his answer — What exactly is the Rohingya issue?. Rohingya are the minority people who belong to Rakhine state in Myanmar were forced to move out and migrate to Bangladesh.
Interestingly the word ‘Rohingya’ didn’t feature in the official MEA document in 2017 -http://www.mea.gov.in/Portal/For... when the whole world was talking about it. It shows the equivocal nature of Indian diplomacy. It can also be termed as ‘do-nothing-policy-when-it-comes-to-migration’.
(Image source: Business Standard)
But in Rohingya issue, not only Myanmar-India relations are involved, but India-Bangladesh relations are also at stake. It was a perfect opportunity for India to act as a mediator in the issue but that spotlight was stolen by China, who was behaving as a true South Asian leader. When India deported the Rohingya back to Bangladesh, it started Operation Insaniyat — Humanitarian assistance to Bangladesh on account of influx of refugees which was very well received by the people. But soft power isn’t enough without behaving itself as a true leader, at least, in South Asia.
India have committed to fund more than 4000 crore to Myanmar which includes many geo-strategic projects like — Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project; the Trilateral Highway Project, which is an East-West corridor connecting our Northeast with Myanmar and Thailand; the Rhi-Tiddim road; supply of Bailey bridges; assistance for border area development in the Naga Self Administered Zone by financing bridges, roads, schools and small health centres. But hardly the fund only remains in the paper. China is more swift when it comes to project completion.
India needs to step up its role and involve Myanmar in regional cooperation like BIMSTEC and Mekong Ganga Cooperation- which provides an excellent opportunity to boycott the stalled talks with Pakistan in SAARC.
